What Moved The Markets This Week 📈
Layoffs Hit Highest Level Since 2009, Fed 'Not Far' From Rate Cuts, Sweden Officially Joins NATO, Rivian Unveils Three New EVs, Bitcoin All-Time-Highs, and CRWD + MDB + AVGO Earnings
Sunday Morning Markets
Trading Week 10, covering Monday, Mar 4 through Friday, Mar 8. Your weekly financial markets update, in less than 5 minutes.
The Week In Review ⏪
US Markets 🇺🇸
Layoffs hit the highest level since 2009
Powell says Fed is ‘not far’ from rate cuts
Jetblue & Spirit call off their merger
TMSC wins $5B grant for new Arizona fab
Earnings from Crowdstrike, MongoDB, and Broadcom
Global Markets 🌏
Apple hit with nearly $2B EU antitrust fine
iPhone sales in China plunge 24%
Sweden officially joins NATO
ECB & BOC both hold interest rates steady
Tech ⚡
Rivian unveils three new EVs
Bitcoin breaks through all-time-high
Apple terminates Epic Games’ developer account
US Markets 🇺🇸
Layoffs rise to the highest level since 2009 in February, according to Challenger. Job cuts at financial firms have risen 56% compared with the first two months of 2023, whereas tech layoffs have fallen 55%.
Powell says the Fed is not ready to start cutting rates during a congressional hearing this week. However, he noted that the comittee is ‘not far’ from gaining the confidence needed to scale back interest rates.
Consumer credit rose $19.5 billion in January, nearly double what was expected. Revolving credit, such as credit cards, accelerated at a 7.7% rate after a 2.4% gain in December.
US economy added 275,000 jobs in February but the unemployment rate rose to 3.9%, both higher than expected. They also revised the previous two readings down by 167,000. Wages rose 0.1% on the month and 4.3% on the year.
NYCB says it lost 7% of deposits in the past month as customers start to worry. The company then announced a new $1 billion capital injection to shore up its balance sheet. NYCB 0.00%↑ shares are down 67% YTD.
TSMC to win over $5 Billion in federal grants to support a chip plan in Arizona, in what would mark a major milestone in President Joe Biden’s effort to revitalize American semiconductor manufacturing.
JetBlue and Spirit end its $3.8 billion merger after losing the federal antitrust lawsuit. Spirit will receive $69 million in deal termination fees. JBLU 0.00%↑ rallied 11% this week, whereas SAVE 0.00%↑ plunged 25%.
Global Markets 🌏
Apple iPhone sales plunge 24% in China in the first six weeks of 2024, according to Counterpoint Research. Apple has faced stiff competition from local smartphone firms like Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi.
The ECB holds its key interest rate at a record high but hinted at a June rate cut as it trimmed its inflation forecast to 2.3% for the year, down from 2.7%. The staff also projected slower economic growth of 0.6% for 2024.
Sweden formally joins the NATO military alliance, becoming its 32nd member after applying almost two years ago. Hungary and Turkey delayed the process of Sweden’s accession, with both countries only voting in favor of it this year.
China’s consumer prices rise for first time since August as the CPI was up 0.7% from a year earlier. Meanwhile, producer prices fell 2.7% in February, marking the 17th consecutive month in negative territory.
Tesla’s China-made EV sales dropped 19% from the year before to the lowest level since December 2022. The Chinese New Year holiday seems to be the main cause of the drop. TSLA 0.00%↑ shares are down 29% YTD.
The Bank of Canada kept its key interest rate steady at 5% as expected but dashed the hopes of future cuts, saying it was too early to consider a cut. Headline inflation stands at 2.9%, still above the bank's 2% target.
Apple hit with $1.95 billion EU antitrust fine for abusing its dominant position in the music streaming market. The commission claims that Apple restricted app developers from offering alternative services outside of the iOS app.
Amazon's AWS to launch data centers in Saudi Arabia by 2026 with plans to invest more than $5.3 billion in the kingdom. The investment will enable customers to run workloads with lower latency in Saudi Arabia.
Tech ⚡
Rivian unveils three new electric vehicles including the R2 SUV, which is expected to start at $45,000 and go on sale in 2026. The company also announced the R3 and R3X crossovers.
Apple terminates Epic Games developer account calling the company ‘verifiably untrustworthy.’ Epic’s plans to release its own third-party app store on iOS in Europe could now be in trouble.
OpenAI shares emails from Musk urging them to raise $1 billion and agreeing with co-founder Ilya Sutskever that the company should “start being less open” over time and “not share” the company’s science with the public.
Bitcoin ETFs pull in money at record pace with BlackRock’s IBIT 0.00%↑ being the fastest to ever reach $10 billion in AUM. The size of the top 10 Bitcoin ETFs has swelled to $50 billion, leading BTC to a new all-time high this week.
MicroStrategy to raise $600M to buy more Bitcoin and add to its existing stack of 193,000 BTC worth more than $13 billion at current prices. The company will raise the money via convertible debt in a private offering.
Target to launch its own version of Amazon Prime called ‘Circle 360’ which starts at $49 a year. The membership includes unlimited free same-day delivery for orders over $35 and free two-day shipping.
Ford’s February EV sales surged 81% versus the year prior. Hybrid sales jumped 32%, while combustion car sales were up 7.5%. Despite the increases in hybrids and EVs, 90% of Ford’s sales were still traditional cars and trucks.
Earnings Reports 💰
See other breakdowns on our Twitter page.
Weekly Poll 🗳️
SMM Product Hunt 🧠
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Week Ahead 📅
Monday
US - NY Fed 1YR Inflation Expectations 🇺🇸
AU - NAB Business Confidence 🇦🇺
Earnings: Oracle, Asana💰
Tuesday
US - CPI Inflation (FEB)🇺🇸
UK - Employment Report (JAN)🇬🇧
DE - CPI Inflation (FEB)🇩🇪
Wednesday
US - Crude Oil Inventories🇺🇸
UK - GDP (JAN)🇬🇧
EU - Industrial Production (JAN)🇪🇺
Earnings: UiPath, SentinelOne, Lennar💰
Thursday
US - PPI Inflation (FEB)🇺🇸
US - Retail Sales (FEB)🇺🇸
US - Jobless Claims🇺🇸
Earnings: Adobe, Ulta, Smartsheet, PagerDuty💰
Friday
US - UMich Consumer Sentiment (MAR)🇺🇸
US - NY Empire State Manf. Index (FEB)🇺🇸
CA - Wholesale Sales (JAN)🇨🇦
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